Computer systems run operating systems in which users are commonly provided with differing levels of access permissions or privileges. The access permissions are arranged to enable the activities of a given user to be restricted where appropriate. For example, a normal user of a computer system may have relatively restricted access permissions, which limit the user's ability to use, modify or create selected sets of data. An administrator of the computer system may, by contrast, have access permissions that enable the administrator to use, modify or create any data within the computer system. Hierarchies of access permissions may be provided. Access permissions commonly relate to reading or writing datasets in the form of computer files. Access permissions may also be referred to as user rights or privileges. In many computer systems, full access permissions are reserved for trusted computer system administrator user accounts commonly referred to as a superuser, privileged, root or supervisor accounts.
Maintaining the security or integrity of a computer system is problematic when an administrator account is compromised or an unauthorized administrator account is created. Such accounts can be used to access, create or modify computer system data so as to compromise the security and integrity of the computer system. In particular, security related data or sensitive user data could be accessed or modified.